Messi led Argentina to World Cup glory in 2022, but his side lost 1-0 to Spain in the 2026 final.<\/p>\n
Published On 31 Aug 202631 Aug 2026<\/p>\n
Lionel Messi, who captained Argentina to\u00a0World Cup victory in 2022<\/a> and the final in 2026<\/a>, is retiring from international football, he said.<\/p>\n The record eight-time Ballon d\u2019Or winner is his country\u2019s record appearance maker and scorer, with 125 goals in 207 games, \u2060having transformed a complicated relationship with the national team into a story of redemption and triumph.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a decision that hurt \u2013 and still hurts deep down \u2013 but I understand that the time has come,\u201d the 39-year-old Messi wrote on Instagram on Monday.<\/p>\n \u201cI swear to you that I always gave it my all \u2013 not just in these last few years when we \u200cwon everything, but before that too; I always fought and left everything on the field for this jersey, to bring you joy and make you feel proud to be Argentine through football.<\/p>\n \u201cTime is running short, chapters come to a close, and this is one that hurts me deeply. I love, have loved, and will always love being part of the national team. I\u2019ve given everything I had; I have nothing left to give, and besides, \u2060there are some great young players coming up who deserve to be here.\u201d<\/p>\n Defeat \u2060in this year\u2019s World Cup final by Spain denied Messi a fairy-tale farewell, but his place among the game\u2019s greats had long since been secured.<\/p>\n After years of disappointment with Argentina, including defeat in the 2014 World Cup final and successive Copa \u2060America finals, Messi won his first major international trophy at the 2021 Copa America before leading his country to glory at the 2022 Qatar World Cup.<\/p>\n The \u2060former Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain forward, who now plays \u2060for Inter Miami, added another Copa America title in 2024 and arrived at his sixth World Cup hoping to complete an extraordinary final chapter.<\/p>\n A 1-0 loss to Spain after extra time ensured that did not happen, but Messi, who made his Argentina debut \u200cin 2005, walks away having emerged from the shadow of 1986 World Cup-winning captain Diego Maradona to forge a legacy of his own as another defining figure in his country\u2019s football history.<\/p>\n \u201cI leave with the \u200cpeace \u200cof mind and pride of having given you \u2013 alongside my teammates \u2013 moments we once only dreamed of,\u201d Messi added.<\/p>\n After the death of his father, Jorge, in August, Messi had said he had \u201cserious doubts\u201d about continuing to play football of any sort for \u201cmuch longer\u201d.<\/p>\n Messi\u2019s contract with Major League Soccer club Inter Miami runs until the end of the 2028 season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Messi led Argentina to World Cup glory in 2022, but his side lost 1-0 to Spain in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":78544,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4027,313,154,17,314],"class_list":["post-78543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-spain","tag-argentina","tag-football","tag-latin-america","tag-spain","tag-sport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78543"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78543\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}